There're always those "air pumping" type thermoses, as well as: Bike
bottles; Small "Dorm room" fridges; Service dogs; and chemistry type
squeeze-to-squirt water bottles (also used by runners sometimes.) <G>

Robin's used a thermos, bolted (in a modified Bike Water bottle
carrier) to the back of her wheelchair, one of those "Flip-Top" jobs -
flip the top up & drill it out larger, with a Plastic/Vinyl hose from
the thermos up to near her mouth, held in place with some carefully bent
welding rod (or clothes hanger) to keep it in the right place. Learned
this from another chair-bound friend whose hands are tied down due to
her disability, you can make a milkshake or fill the thermos with ice &
water or with coffee if you want her more awake <G> Her friend's pretty
self-reliant all day, that way, with just a refill or three (I need to
install this on Robin's current chair, the modifications are harder as
this one tilts so I need the thermos to move & not mash anything etc.)
Use a Trumpet cleaning brush (IIRC) to clean the hose periodically, or
make it removeable & bleach sterilize it, same for the thermos <G> Most
people can pull water up 3 feet or so of 1/4" tubing fairly easily, plug
it with tongue when breathing to keep the hose full.

You could pull the hose out of her way with a cord, she releases the
cord to let the hose get nearer her. (i.e. have a knot 2 feet from the
tied-down end of the cord, snap that into a holder to pull the hose
away, release it to drink.) I've threatened to put 5 of these next to
Robin's bed, so she has all day handled at once, in the name of
"efficiency" <G>

I cannot say enough *Good* things about Service animals, but that's
getting quite OT. Wonderful help, and you can train your own animal.

Also, you might ask the people at the Seattle Robotics Society about
such things (Possible that someone's done this sort of thing if you want
a photovore setup, and has it all downloadable.)

>
> Fellow PICsters,
>
> I'm wanting to design something for my mom....here we go =)
>
> She's sort of bed-riden (or ridden?) at the moment, and she's wanting
> something that'll bring water to her on demand. So what I was thinking, is to
> have a bright light attached to the side of her bed, and have a bot of some
> kind that is attracted to it (a photovore). This seems like the simplest
> implementation for me because of my lacking analog/digital design knowledge.
> So what I'm wondering, are there any other alternatives? Maybe I could do
> some kind of line follower?
>
> Any help from you geniuses would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Tim H.